Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare have updated the Projects of Concern list with the removal of the Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) Wedgetail Aircraft Project and the Lightweight Torpedo Project and the addition of the Mulwala Redevelopment and the Direct Fire Support Weapon Projects to the list.
The two projects removed together represent a combined value of $4.5 billion, bringing the total value of projects removed from the list to over $14 billion since the Projects of Concern process was created in 2008.
Since the Projects of Concern process was established, 21 projects have been put on the list. Fifteen have since been removed – 13 due to remediation and two due to cancellation.
In June 2011, Mr Smith and Mr Clare announced reforms to strengthen the Projects of Concern process, including:
- The establishment of a more formal process for adding projects to the list;
- The establishment of a formal process for removing projects from the list;
- The development of agreed remediation plans, including formal milestones for the removal of a project from the list;
- Increased Ministerial involvement and oversight of the process; and
- Incentives for companies to fix projects on the list by taking into account the performance of companies in addressing Projects of Concern when evaluating their tenders for other projects.
For a full list of the current Projects of Concern, please refer to the PDF of DWP issue no.235.